On the WaterJul – Aug
Open Water Swim
Off rock, not off sand
Swimming here is off rock rather than off sand. There is almost no tide, the water is brackish and low in salt, and you get in by walking down a granite slab that has been worn smooth by exactly that, for a very long time.
Water temperature is the thing to understand. It lags the air by about six weeks, so late June is colder than people expect and late August is the warmest water of the year — sixteen to twenty degrees in a good summer, and genuinely pleasant.
A guided swim means a safety boat, a route between two points, and somebody who knows where the channels are. Boat traffic is the real hazard in a summer archipelago, not the water.